Somerset's new schools chief is thrust into the fray

Last week, Jeffrey Schoonover attended his second straight Somerset school board meeting in two days, having had a whirlwind of meetings with Medeiros, other administrators and officials, with more lined up.

SOMERSET — Jeffrey Schoonover, newly appointed superintendent of Somerset’s school district, looks so much like the man he’s replacing, Richard Medeiros, that when he answered questions at a meeting last week, one administrator commented that he thought he was Medeiros.

But in contrast to the departing Medeiros — who was named to his new job in Freetown three months ago — there’s one similarity and luxury Schoonover does not have: time to get oriented.

Last week, Schoonover attended his second straight Somerset school board meeting in two days, having had a whirlwind of meetings with Medeiros, other administrators and officials, with more lined up.

Typically, a new superintendent has a few months to prepare for taking the helm, Schoonover said, using Medeiros as an example.

“I’m going to have about two or 2½ weeks,” he said.

In many ways, however, the 42-year-old, who lived in Fall River until he and his young family moved to Somerset nine years ago, sees this career advancement as “the perfect opportunity.”

Schoonover has been assistant superintendent for the Portsmouth, Rhode Island, public schools for 2½ years, where he’s taught since 2001. Last summer, he was its interim superintendent for two months. Somerset and Somerset-Berkley committee members described him as the logical person to fill in and ease any crisis.

Wednesday is the last day of school in Portsmouth. Schoonover said he believes he can take the reins “very close to July 1.”

With a new Portsmouth superintendent coming aboard July 15 — Fall River resident Ana Riley, who is leaving her post in Dartmouth — Schoonover said he expects to have some flexibility from his new school system to return periodically and help Riley transition to her new post.

Negotiations between the town and regional school committees and Schoonover are reportedly nearly completed. The fiscal 2015 budget includes a superintendent’s annual salary that’s roughly the same as Medeiros’s $132,000.

Last week, Schoonover told the board he’s meeting with teachers and administrators, addressing staff openings, attending contract negotiations over the next few weeks and tackling school policies and improvement plans.

“I’m trying to get my finger on the pulse of things,” he told the School Committee.

As he sat in a yellow plastic chair talking before the meeting, the longtime physics teacher and department chair likened the swirling changes to “a perfect storm — but in a positive way.”

“Everything happened at the right time and in the right manner,” he said. “It was the perfect opportunity.”

He acknowledged that Pauline Camara was an excellent candidate as well — she has been working in the Somerset schools for the past 17 years and holds a doctorate in educational leadership. She was briefly named acting superintendent last summer.

When he was young, Schoonover attended the old Small School in Fall River.

His mother was a bookkeeper in the city’s special education department and heard “horror stories” about the middle grades, Schoonover said, so he left Small and attended Sts. Peter and Paul School for grades 4 to 8. Then he followed his older brother, Brian, to Bishop Connolly High School.

But that didn’t last.

“I didn’t feel a connection to it. I wanted to experience Durfee,” he said of B.M.C. Durfee High School, “and I’m so glad I did. I had just a great experience.

“I always had being a teacher in the back of my head. I knew I wanted to be a public school teacher.

“In high school, I just had such excellent teachers,” he said. Moreover, he said, those teachers “were great people. They cared. I had a connection with them, and I wanted to emulate them.”

Experience in Portsmouth

In his third year teaching physics at Portsmouth High School, Principal Robert Littlefield promoted him to science department chairman. As chairman, in addition to overseeing the science curriculum, teacher evaluations and supervision, he taught three science classes.

In 2006, he led the district’s two-year accreditation team for the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

In 2009, his last full year teaching science, he received Rhode Island’s Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Teaching, spent a week with fellow teachers in Washington, D.C., and met President Barack Obama.

In the fall of 2011, Schoonover’s leadership role increased significantly, when Portsmouth’s then-superintendent, Lynn Kriszic, approached him about being assistant superintendent.

“She’s really the one that gave me the opportunity. She saw something in me,” he said appreciatively.

What was challenging, he said, was that as assistant superintendent, and briefly acting superintendent, he became “the go-to guy” among teachers and staff, even when the school board hired a new leader.

But Schoonover said he’s benefitted during the past year having a rear admiral as superintendent with a “totally different” leadership style and naval experience to learn from.

As for why he did not apply for the Portsmouth superintendent job, he said, “It’s been a tough situation recently with leadership … I didn’t want that to be my first experience as superintendent, not in the culture there is now.”

Looking ahead

Schoonover’s wife, Julia, works as a special education teacher in Somerset at North Elementary School and has been an adjunct professor at Bristol Community College. They have three children in the town schools between ages 8 and 12.

Page 3 of 3 - As he looks ahead to leading the town school district this year and both the school and regional districts a year from now, Schoonover said he sees similarities with Portsmouth in terms of the number of students — 2,700 to 2,800 — operating budgets of about $30 million and relatively affluent communities that historically have made education a priority.

Both are also experiencing leadership changes and more financial challenges than in the past.

“There certainly are some challenges right now,” said Schoonover, who was accessible and approachable for an interview, and answered questions confidently.

Of the $500,000 budget deficit for the current year, Schoonover said, “We want to fix that quickly. We don’t want to kick the can down the road and have it impact the 2015-16 budget.”

His day had started at 6 a.m. in Portsmouth, R.I. He wanted to work a full day before shifting to Somerset for the afternoon and night.